Nous mesurons [les deux mille coudées du tchum Shabbath] seulement avec une corde [de lin] de cinquante coudées, pas moins, [car quand la corde est courte, elle est étirée davantage et la mesure augmente], et pas plus, [car quand il est plus long, son poids le double au milieu et il se raccourcit.] Et on ne mesure que contre son cœur. [Les sages ont fixé une place pour le bout de la corde, chacun contre son cœur. Car si l'un la plaçait contre son cœur et l'autre contre ses pieds, la corde se raccourcirait et le tchumin diminuerait.] S'il mesurait et qu'il arrivait à une vallée ou à une clôture [un mur de pierre tombé qui devenait un haut, incliné tas], il «l'avale» [S'il n'avait pas cinquante coudées de large d'un bord à l'autre au-dessus, même si son inclinaison était de plus de mille, on ne dit pas qu'il est compris dans la mesure du tchum; mais l'un se tient d'un côté et l'un de l'autre, et la pente est engloutie avec une corde], et il revient à sa mesure. ["Il revient à sa mesure" implique que si sa largeur en direction de la ville était supérieure à cinquante, de sorte qu'il ne pouvait pas l'avaler là-haut avec la corde, et avec une de ses extrémités pas en direction de la ville , il pourrait l'avaler—il va l'avaler là-haut, et il continue de marcher et de mesurer à partir du bord jusqu'à l'endroit où la largeur de la vallée se termine en direction de la ville, et il continue à mesurer en direction de la ville et complète la mesure du tchum.] S'il est venu à une montagne, il l'avale vers le haut [Ceci, si la montagne n'est pas très raide, mais sur une pente, de sorte que marcher cinq coudées de celui-ci soulève une seulement dix largeurs de main; mais s'il est si raide que moins de cinq coudées de marche lève une dizaine de largeurs de main, il ne l'avale pas, mais évalue seulement (sa distance) et continue.], tant qu'il ne sort pas du tchum. [Lorsque le mesureur va «engloutir» la montagne ou la vallée, il ne peut pas sortir du tchum jusqu'à un endroit où les têtes de la vallée sont si étroites qu'il peut les engloutir, pour revenir de là à sa mesure en direction de la ville—un décret en raison de la possibilité de le voir aller et de mesurer là-bas et dire que la mesure tchum des côtés de la ville s'étend jusque-là.] S'il est incapable de l'avaler, à ce sujet R. Dostai a dit: J'ai entendu que les montagnes sont «percées». [("à propos de cela, R. Dostai a dit" :) "à ce sujet," pour exclure (les mesures pour) les villes de refuge et pour la génisse rousse, (la ville) la plus proche de l'homme tué, où il n'y a pas de forage. ("foré à travers" :) Ils (les montagnes) sont considérés comme forés, et ils sont mesurés à travers le trou pour exclure la mesure de la pente, comme indiqué dans la gemara. Il est mesuré avec une corde de quatre coudées. Le plus bas (mesureur) place la corde contre son cœur, et le supérieur, contre ses pieds, et ils mesurent le tout, quatre coudées après quatre coudées progressivement, de sorte qu'une pente de quatre coudées perd la moitié de la hauteur d'un homme. La halakha est conforme à R. Dostai.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
אין מודדין – two-thousand cubits of the Sabbath limit other than with a flax rope that is fifty cubits long.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
Introduction
This mishnah discusses how they actually go out and measure the Shabbat limit.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
לא פחות – that if the rope is short, it is greatly stretched and lengthens [one must say, the measurement].
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
They measure the Shabbat limit only with a rope fifty cubits long, neither less nor more. The mishnah mandates the use of a fifty cubit rope in measuring the Shabbat limit. A shorter rope will stretch and yield to large of an area, whereas too long of a rope will not stretch enough the area will be too small.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
ולא יותר – when it is too long, it becomes heavy, he doubles it at its middle and shortens it.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
And one should measure only while holding the end of the rope on a level with his heart. Measuring with a rope requires two people, one to hold each end of the rope. If the two hold the rope in different places the measurement will be off. Therefore, the rabbis said that the rope should be held at the level of one’s heart.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
אלא כנגד לבו (at level with his heart) – The Sages established for him a place to put the head of the rope, every person level with his heart, for if this person would place it corresponding to his neck and the other corresponding to his feet, the rope would shorten and the [Sabbath] limits would grow shorter.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
If he was measuring and he reached a valley or a wall he spans it and resumes his measuring. If when measuring they come to a small valley (we might call this a large ditch) or a wall, the elevation of the wall or the descent into the ditch should not count as part of the measuring of the Shabbat limit. What they should do is span the rope over the valley, with one person standing on one side and the other person standing on the other. Similarly, if they get to a wall they do not run the rope over the wall, measuring the incline and decline leading up to the wall. Rather they measure up to the wall, then the thickness of the wall and then they proceed from the other side.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
If he reached a hill he spans it and resumes his measuring, provided he does not go beyond the Shabbat limit. The same way they measure the wall and valley is how they measure a hill. However, in all of these cases they cannot go beyond the Shabbat limit. What this means is that if the valley, wall or hill were wide within the limit (too wide for a fifty cubit rope), but narrower outside the limit, they should not walk out of the Shabbat limit to perform their measurements and then set a place parallel to that point within the limit. The Talmud explains that the problem would be that if others saw them doing this, they might think that the point where they went to measure was the Shabbat limit, and not realize that they were measuring outside of the border in order to set up a parallel point within the border.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
מבליעו (takes account only of the horizontal span/includes it) – if it is not fifty cubit wide from border to border from above, even though there is in its sloping going more than one-thousand, we don’t say that he should raise the measurement of his slope to the measurement of the [Sabbath] limit, but rather, this should stand on the border from here, and that should stand on its border from there and absorb (i.e., include) it from the slope with one rope.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
If he is unable to span it in connection with this Rabbi Dostai ben Yannai stated in the name of Rabbi Meir: “I have heard that they pierce the hills.” The mishnah now deals with a valley or hill which were too big to measure with a fifty cubit rope, or were narrow only outside of the Shabbat limit. Rabbi Dostai says that we look at the mountains as if they were pierced. In other words, their ascent and descent are not taken into account. The Talmud explains how this is done. They use a small rope of four cubits, and the person holding below puts the rope next to his heart and the person holding above puts the rope next to his feet. In this way the four cubits are lessened a certain percentage for every four cubits. This is the size of the mountain’s ascent and descent, according to the rabbis. If you are having trouble picturing this, imagine a right triangle with its slope ascending, as if it was going up the mountain. If the top line is four cubits (the length of the rope) and the person hold the rope below is 3 cubits (the size of an average person), then you have a triangle whose sides are 4, 3 and 5, the side of 5 being the slope going up the hill (all of this is remembered from 10th grade geometry thank you Mr. Formica!). Thus the five cubits up the mountain are spanned with a four cubit rope, thereby gaining one cubit for every four. [I hope this helped!].
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
וחוזר למדתו – for since it teaches, “continues his measuring” – implying that if its width that corresponded to the town/city was more than fifty [cubits] and he was not able to absorb it/include it there with the rope, and with one of its heads that does not correspond to the town/city, he can absorb it/include it there, and measure and go there from the border and beyond until it corresponds to the place where the the width of the valley ends sin it corresponding to he city/town, and he returns to his measurement corresponding to the town/city and completes the measurement of its [Sabbath] limits.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
הגיע להר מבליעו – and this is so that the mountain/hill will not be standing upright a great deal, but rather slanting, for in the walking of five cubits from it, he will not raise it (i.e., the rope) other than ten handbreadths, if it is standing straight up until with at least of the distance of five cubits it is standing upright ten handbreadths, he doesn’t include it/absorb it, but rather, estimates it alone and goes on.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
והוא שלא יצא חוץ לתחום – when he measurer goes to include the hill/mountain or the valley, he should not leave outside of the [Sabbath] limit to a a place where the tops of the valley are short – that he is able to absorb them there in order that he can return afterwards to his measurement corresponding to the town/city, as a decree, because a person who sees it measures it and goes there would say that the measurement of the [Sabbath] limit of the sides of the city/town come up to here.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
בזו אמר רבי דוסתאי – with this, to exclude the city of refuge and the heifer whose neck is broken that is nearest to the space/cavity that they don’t estimate the level distance between two places separated by mountains (see Talmud Eruvin 58a-b – because they are from the Written Torah).
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
מקדרין – they perforate, they see as if they perforate them and measure the path of the perforation, to exclude the measurement of its sloping, as we stated in the Gemara (Tractate Eruvin 58b) that they measure it with a rope of four cubits and the bottom they place the rope corresponding to his heart and at the top corresponding to his feet, and similarly they measure it all four cubits by four cubits and they deduct the slope of all four cubits by half the height of a person. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Dostai.
